The Abyss (ἄβυσσος)

2023-02-08

There is a word translated “deep” and “bottomless,” which looks like the word “abyss.” It is a prison for demons and evil.

The Legion did not want to go there when Jesus confronted them. “And they besought him that he would not command them to go out into the deep” (Luke 8:31).

The locusts of the fifth trumpet come from this bottomless pit. An angel has a key that unseals this place. “And the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star fall from heaven unto the earth: and to him was given the key of the bottomless pit. And he opened the bottomless pit; and there arose a smoke out of the pit, as the smoke of a great furnace; and the sun and the air were darkened by reason of the smoke of the pit” (Revelation 9:1-2).

There is an angel that is in charge of this place. “And they had a king over them, which is the angel of the bottomless pit, whose name in the Hebrew tongue is Abaddon, but in the Greek tongue hath his name Apollyon” (Revelation 9:11).

The Antichrist who died rose from this pit. “And when they shall have finished their testimony, the beast that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit shall make war against them, and shall overcome them, and kill them” (Revelation 11:7). And again, “The beast that thou sawest was, and is not; and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit, and go into perdition: and they that dwell on the earth shall wonder, whose names were not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world, when they behold the beast that was, and is not, and yet is” (Revelation 17:8).

The angel who has the key to the bottomless pit (cf. Revelation 9:1) takes Satan and throws him into the pit during the millennial reign. “And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years, And cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled: and after that he must be loosed a little season” (Revelation 20:1-3).

The Lord Jesus Christ went there when He died. “But the righteousness which is of faith speaketh on this wise, Say not in thine heart, Who shall ascend into heaven? (that is, to bring Christ down from above:) Or, Who shall descend into the deep? (that is, to bring up Christ again from the dead.)” (Romans 10:6-7).